A&E Waiting Times

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  • #54522

    johnhoppy
    Participant

    It is obviously disappointing and distressing to see so many people waiting at A&E for attention.

    It is a little simplistic to blame people for going there with minor ailments when they should be seeing their GP. Quite often it can take several days to get an appointment with your own GP, and the out of hours service is a little confusing to say the least, leaving people with little alternative other than to visit A&E.

    The beds in the community hospitals have gone, and as far as I am aware no additional beds have been provided at the General Hospitals to replace them. The Health Boards will say that care is now more community based with less treatment being provided for in hospitals, but this is obviously not working, thus the shortage of beds for emergencies.

    I do not have any answers, but there must be a rethink of these policies as things can only get worse if they remain as they are.

    #67248

    gogledd
    Participant

    A friend badly damaged her arm last Friday after colliding with a filing cabinet. She was in a great deal of pain. As a first aider I was fairly confident she hadn’t broken it but I was concerned there could be a damaged nerve or perhaps a slight crack in a bone, so I recommended she went to A&E. over 90 minutes later she rang me to ask me to pick her up – she had been told that the wait would be 6 to 8 hours!

    #67246

    johnnytv
    Participant

    This is where the Triage service should come into play. They should determine if people need to actually be in A&E or not – if someone comes in with a very minor issue they should be told to go to the doctors with it at the next available appointment. This would massively reduce the waiting times.

    I was in A&E with my brother last year, whilst there a member of staff came out to say that there were long waiting times and to get an up to date list of people waiting read out the current list – 2/3 of them had left and not notified a member of staff. It’s a fair assumption that a majority of these patients didn’t require emergency attention and the staff still thinking they’re waiting only holds things up further.

    I know from my own experience how useless it can be with trying to get a doctors appointment too but this is made much worse by people making appointments and then not turning up (many departments in the hospital also have this happen to a high degree).

    My suggestion would be a fine of say £20 if you miss an appointment without cancellation unless there is a genuine reason for doing so. If you don’t pay the fine, you can’t book another appointment or receive treatment. I don’t think that’s unfair and think it would again go a long way in improving things.

    The fact is, at the moment for the above reasons and others it’s a shambles – 6 – 8hrs to wait is ridiculous, especially if it involves children. Major changes are needed to improve things to a reasonable level or it’ll just continue going downhill.

    #67249

    gogledd
    Participant

    When I picked up my friend she told me that she was chatting with a mum who was with her teenage son. He was obviously extremely ill. They had and appointment to get the poor lad a bed and were still made to wait in A&E for hours, even though they had made an appointment.

    As far as I am aware the current triage system just divided patients up into urgent, non-urgent or minors – I am not aware that people are advised to go to see their GP.

    #67241

    wrexview
    Participant

    Our local AM’s and Mark Drakeford are still silent , they are the only people with the power and access to the money to remedy this situation. Do they not care that the A&E system in North Wales is at breaking point?

    #67244

    Darlofan
    Participant

    My experiences(4of them) in the last 12months have all been really great, I think the longest wait was about an hour. I guess all of these were lucky judging by comments but time of day varied greatly from late night to mid afternoon. I think the solution is to charge £5 to everyone as they arrive, that would get rid of most time wasters.

    #67247

    zinger
    Participant

    Surely there must be a better way of keeping patients informed as to where they are in the queue. Something visual. They could be categorised as urgent, non urgent etc. It would save the nursing staff from walking up & down the corridors to call names & better for people who are a bit deaf & can’t hear around corners. If they kept going to the back of the queue they might feel that they were wasting their time and sign out without guilt. The problem is that there isn’t something between visiting the GP & going to A & E.

    #67245

    Darlofan
    Participant

    Anyone that can’t be bothered waiting and walks out of A+E clearly should not be there in the first place.
    There should also be something where Ambulances can charge for non emergency’s. This should be taken out of benefits as well, in one go also not at 26p per week because they have kids and need essentials like fags, sky and booze.

    #67242

    wrexview
    Participant

    Perhaps David Cameron’s criticism of the way Labour is running the NHS in Wales, in his speech in Llangollen today, will provoke a response from Mark Drakeford . The Easter Bank Holiday is on the horizon with GP surgeries shut for four days in a row and North Wales busy with extra tourists, leading to probably even more pressure on our A&E’s ! Take care out there everyone!

    #67243

    wrexview
    Participant

    BBC News – Nurses 'demoralised' by row over Welsh NHS, says RCN chief

    Good article putting the nurses view point. They are in an intolerable situation wanting to put their patients needs first but constrained by a system that is broken!

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